Belarusians are voting in a closely-managed presidential election that is all but certain to extend the one-man rule of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and Europe’s longest-serving leader.

MINSK (Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday that some of his political opponents had "chosen" to go to prison as he cast his vote in a election that was set to extend his 31-year rule.

Alexander Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for the past 30 years, was on Sunday set to win his seventh consecutive mandate in an election slammed by both the opposition and the European Union as a sham vote.

MINSK (Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was on track to extend his 31-year rule with 87.6% of the vote in a presidential election on Sunday, according to an exit poll broadcast on state TV,

Belarus is holding a presidential election in which the outcome is all but certain: a seventh term for authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Around 6.9 million people are eligible to vote in the former Soviet republic closely aligned with Moscow,

Belarusians voted on Sunday in an election that was set to hand another five years in power to President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia's Vladimir Putin.